S. F. B. Morse.
CHAPTER XXIII
Samuel Finley
Breese Morse
and the Electric
Telegraph
[1791-1872]
Great as was the power of the steamboat and the railroad in quickening the social life of mankind, of still greater influence in binding together remote communities was the invention of the electric telegraph. The steamboat and the railroad made travel and transportation easier, and frequent intercourse by letters and newspapers possible; but the electric telegraph enabled men to flash their thoughts thousands of miles in a few seconds. The inventor of this wonderful mechanism was Samuel Finley Breese Morse.
He was born, in 1791, in a house standing at the foot of Breed's Hill, Charlestown, Mass. His father was a learned minister who, as Daniel Webster said, "was always thinking, always writing, always talking, always acting"; and his mother a woman of noble character, who inspired her son with manly purpose.
When Finley was only four years of age he was sent to a school kept by an elderly woman known as "Old Ma'am Rand." She was lame, but nowise halting in discipline, for she kept near at hand a long rattan stick by means of which, when necessary, she could quickly reach her pupils in any part of the room.
He did not remain long under "Old Ma'am Rand's" tuition, for when he was seven he went to school at Andover, and still later entered Phillips Academy in the same town. At fourteen he entered Yale College, where from the first he was a thoughtful and diligent student.
Very soon Finley's two brothers joined him at college. As their father was poor, the boys had to help themselves along. Finley turned to account his talent for drawing. He made considerable money by painting on ivory likenesses of his classmates and professors, receiving for a miniature $5, and for a profile $1.
At the end of his college course he made painting his chosen profession, and planned to get the best instruction for his life work.